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Category: Prison conditions

Appeal: Save our father Varavara Rao – Release him immediately from Taloja Jail

Appeal: Save our father Varavara Rao – Release him immediately from Taloja Jail


Varavara Rao greeting family members, 2018 (Photo: DC)

South Asia Citizens Web / by P Sahaja, P Anala, P Pavana

To
The Governor, Maharashtra,
The Chief Justice, High Court of Maharashtra,
The Chief Minister of Maharashtra,
We, P Sahaja, P Anala, P Pavana, daughters of the famous revolutionary poet P Varavara Rao, who is incarcerated in Maharashtra jails (in Yerawada, Pune jail till February 2020 and in Taloja, Navi Mumbai jail since then) in a fabricated case, are perturbed to see the news that a prisoner died in Taloja jail due to Covid-19, as admitted by the government in a PIL case in Mumbai High Court yesterday.
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CITING HEALTH, VARAVARA RAO’S DAUGHTERS URGE MAHARASHTRA CM UDDHAV THACKERAY FOR HIS PAROLE

The New Indian Express / by Express News Service

Earlier, at least 40 prominent writers had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting the release of Rao amid the crisis.
MUMBAI: Family members of poet, writer and activist Varavara Rao, jailed in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon case, appealed to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to release him on parole amid the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the state and in its prisons.
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COVID-19: Jails turn into hotbeds of disease

COVID-19: Jails turn into hotbeds of disease


Drawing by Arun Ferreira

COVID-19: AT LEAST THREE DIE IN MAHARASHTRA PRISONS

26/05/2020

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

In an affidavit submitted to the Bombay high court in response to a PIL, the state government said that a prisoner each has died in the central prisons of Taloja and Yerwada, and in Dhule district prison. Maharashtra is the first state to have reported deaths in prisons so far.
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COVID-19: Jails turn into hotbeds of disease

25/05/2020

The Hindu / by Sonam Saigal

Judges withhold bail; several prison reforms recommended over the years have fallen through the cracks.
On May 5, two months after the Arthur Road jail superintendent warned that an outbreak of COVID-19 could not be contained in the jail due to overcrowding, his worst fears came true: the first positive case was discovered in the precincts.
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Maharashtra Prisoner Released on Parole Says Jails Unprepared to Handle COVID-19 Pandemic

30/03/2020

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

No transport has been arranged for those who are released, while inmates still in prison fear for their health.
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Mumbai Police Quiz Jailed Activist’s Family About His Whereabouts

Mumbai Police Quiz Jailed Activist’s Family About His Whereabouts


Pic: Sagar, Vernon, Susan

The Quint / by Ankita Sinha

On 11 May 2020, two police officials with the Mumbai Crime Branch reportedly paid a visit to social activist Vernon Gonsalves’s home, with the intent of finding out Gonsalves’s whereabouts. They questioned his wife, Susan Abraham, who is also an advocate and his son Sagar.
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UN Bodies pass joint statement on Covid-19 in prisons and other closed settings

UN Bodies pass joint statement on Covid-19 in prisons and other closed settings


Drawing by Arun Ferreira

The Leaflet / by Ujjaini Chatterji

The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crimes, the World Health Organization, and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights have taken note of the spread of Covid-19 in prisons and other closed settings. In this regard, they have issued a statement urging political leaders to undertake the necessary public health measures to counter and mitigate this threat.
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MAHARASHTRA RELEASES 7,200 PRISONERS TO CURB OVERCROWDING

17/05/2020

The New Indian Express / by PTI

In a bid to decongest state jails due to coronavirus outbreak, the state prisons department has so far released over 7,200 prisoners across the state on either temporary bail or parole.
PUNE: Authorities in Maharashtra have released over 7,200 prisoners so far to check overcrowding in jails amid the coronavirus pandemic, officials said on Sunday.
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INDIA DECONTESTS ITS JAILS TO CHECK CORONAVIRUS BUT POLITICAL PRISONERS ARE STILL LOCKED UP

14/05/2020

Quartz India / by Manavi Kapur

Overcrowded Indian prisons have become hotbeds of coronavirus cases.
In March, India’s supreme court recognised this risk—total occupancy of India’s jails standing at 115% —and set down guidelines for releasing some prisoners on parole and bail.
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81 more Arthur Road inmates test positive

81 more Arthur Road inmates test positive


Drawing by Arun Ferreira

The Hindu / by Gautam S. Mengle and Sonam Saigal

One positive at Byculla women’s jail.
As many as 81 more inmates at the Arthur Road Central Jail tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday, taking the number of cases among prisoners lodged there to 158. A prisoner at the women’s prison in Byculla has also tested positive.
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SUPERINTENDENT OF ARTHUR ROAD JAIN IN QUARANTINE

09/04/2020

Mumbai Mirror / by Somendra Sharma and David Delima

… Families of prisoners and undertrials in jails across the city made frantic calls to their lawyers on Friday morning, after hearing the news that 103 people lodged at Arthur Road jail had tested positive for Covid-19 …
“I have not spoken to my father properly since February, when I last saw him in court. I don’t know if he is safe as there as been zero communication from the authorities. We have no way of getting in touch with any official,” said Sagar Gonsalves, son of incarcerated activist Vernon Gonsalves.
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103 TEST COVID-19 POSITIVE IN MUMBAI’S ARTHUR ROAD JAIL

07/04/2020

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

The Maharashtra home department had promised to release over 11,000 prisoners but so far fewer than 7,000 have been released as the health crisis rages.
Mumbai: The delay in the process of decongesting Maharashtra’s prisons has already led to the first major outbreak of COVID-19 in Mumbai’s Arthur Road central prison.
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Maharashtra Women Prisons Hit Hard, Safety of Children a Prime Concern

Maharashtra Women Prisons Hit Hard, Safety of Children a Prime Concern

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

With a woman inmate testing positive for coronavirus at Byculla prison, a look at the rise in cases in Maharashtra’s overcrowded state prisons.
Mumbai: Contrary to the claims made by the Maharashtra home and prisons department that utmost care has been taken to save prisons from COVID-19 outbreak, cases of infection have been on the rise in state prisons.
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BYCULLA JAIL INMATE TESTS POSITIVE FOR CORONAVIRUS

Indiatoday / by Saurabh Vaktania

A woman has tested positive for novel coronavirus in Byculla women’s jail in Mumbai. The patient, a 54-year-old inmate, tested positive on Saturday.
A 54-year-old inmate of the Byculla women’s jail tested positive for novel coronavirus, officials said on Sunday. The new case of coronavirus from the central Mumbai jail comes two days after a doctor attached to it tested positive for Covid-19.
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Why Activists Want Prisons Decontested

Why Activists Want Prisons Decontested

Newsclick / by Subhash Gatade

The Supreme Court also wants to reduce the Covid-19 risks posed by overcrowded jails, but there is little progress so far.
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COVID Treat in Jails Is Real,
Ailing Inmates Must Be Released Now

The Quint / by People’s Union for Democratcic Rights

PUDR expresses apprehensions over the health status of Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha who surrendered before the NIA in Mumbai and Delhi respectively on 14 April 2020. Both are implicated in the Bhima Koregaon case of January 2018 in which eleven human rights defenders have been arrested.
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Vernon Gonsalves has to spend his birthday once more in a prison cell

Vernon Gonsalves has to spend his birthday once more in a prison cell

By Sagar Abraham-Gonsalves / Documented by Mumbai Rises To Save Democracy

22. April
It is my father’s birthday today. He turns 63. Due to the brutality of our government and the failure of our judiciary he will be spending his birthday in a prison cell. At the time of a serious global pandemic when he falls in the category of people most vulnerable he will be spending his birthday in an overcrowded prison with no adequate health facilities.
Today I thought of sharing a about how he has been spending his time in the the past year and a half in Yerwada prison, Pune.
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Koel Sen Pleads For Her Mother’s Release From Jail During A Pandemic

Koel Sen Pleads For Her Mother’s Release From Jail During A Pandemic

Amnesty International India / by Koel Sen

The last time I met my mother – Professor Shoma Sen, was on 29 February 2020 at the Byculla District Jail in Mumbai for 15 minutes. All meetings at the jail have been cancelled in the wake of the nation-wide lockdown announced from 25 March 2020. On Sunday, 5 April 2020, many heeded the Prime Minister’s call to light candles and show solidarity against the novel coronavirus. Meanwhile, some of us, families of the Bhima Koregaon arrestees, remained in the dark about the future of our loved ones.
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How 2-minute Phone Call Keeps Jailed Activists In Touch With Families

How 2-minute Phone Call Keeps Jailed Activists In Touch With Families


Drawing by Arun Ferreira

The Outlook / by Preetha Nair

Why is the Maharashtra government sitting on the Supreme Court order? Are they waiting for people to die in prison? ask kin of activists.
It had over a month since jailed activist Varavara Rao’s family had heard from him. They were anxious and desperate to know how the 80-year-old poet-activist-journalist, who has been languishing in prison for alleged links to Maoists, was doing.
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